bigg jay

I'd like to say they feel Lapo needs all the experience he can get so he improves faster but it's Bell so you know it's just about saving a buck,

I went back 10 years for historical context and a bigger sample size. Why bring up Neufeld when talking about our players you say we draft & develop for other teams? We didn't draft him so he'd be an example of how this happens for other teams as well - Riders drafted him but only got 2.5 seasons out of him before we traded for him. Just looking at 2021-2022 is harder as many of those players could be or are still under their rookie deals & some haven't come north yet so to increase sample size that I didn't look at just OL drafted in the 1st 2 rounds & their status. Here's what I got. 2021: Hamilton had 3 picks. 2 players (Jake Burt & Nick Cross) are out of football & the 3rd (Deane Leonard) has never come north. 0/3 so far but Leonard is TBD as they still have his rights should he come up from the NFL. Sask had 2 picks (Lokombo & Jana). Lokombo is still there but Jana retired after his rookie season. 1/2 Wpg had 2 (Dobson & Kramdi). 1/2, no explanation needed here. BC had 2 picks (Joseph & Jackson). 0/2 (for now) - Joseph got cut in camp as a rookie & is now with Edmonton. Jackson has been in the NFL so they've got nothing yet but TBD on him. Edm had 2 picks (Nelson & McDonald) & both guys are out of football now. 0/2 - they got 3 seasons from Nelson & 1 season from McDonald. Ott had 2 picks (Stevens & Addae). 1/2 - Addae is still there but Stevens left after his rookie deal (now with Sask). Tor had 2 picks and they are 2/2 for now. Nicastro is still there and so is Doxtater but he's only on year 2 of his rookie deal as he spent time in the NFL, UFL & XFL before coming up. TBD whether or not they keep him past his rookie deal. Cal had 2 picks and is 1/2 at the moment. Ogbongbemiga hasn't come to the CFL yet so they haven't gotten anything from him yet while Bell is still with the team. Mtl only had 1 pick (Lestage) and he's still there so 1/1. 18 drafted players- 5 are out of football, 7 with their original team (1 still on a rookie deal), 3 with other CFL teams & 3 have never come north. 2022 (CFL added the 2 bonus picks for being terrible this year so 20 picks instead of 18): Mtl had 3 picks, 2 (Richards & Philpot) are still there while Brown left after 2 seasons. 2/3 Ott had 3 picks but only has Pelehos playing for them. Hogan-Saindon left after his rookie deal & Luketa has not come north. 1/3 for the moment. BC had 2 picks & is 1/2. Cherry is there but Zerr was gone after 1 season. Edm had 3 picks and is 2/3. Makonzo is gonzo but they have Ford & Plamandon Cal went 1/2 - Philpot is there but Schakel only lasted 1 season. Tor went 0/3. Mackellar & Adebobye left after their rookie deal while Knight got poached of their PR in his 3rd season. Sask is 2/2. Emilus & Fry are both still with the team. Wpg is 0/1 with Ford leaving after his rookie deal Ham is also 0/1 with Federico only lasting 2 seasons with them. 20 players - 9 are with their original team, 10 are with new teams & 1 is in the NFL. It looks pretty even to me - no team is perfect so losing players for whatever reason is just part of the crapshoot that is the CFL draft.

And Gatorade jugs around the league are thankful for that!

Did not expect our secondary to be the group to seal the deal tonight.

Wilson looking like 2019 Strevy on short yardage.

And it's not like Snead is a big (or even average sized) receiver either but he still bounced off the hit easily.

Montreal's answer to the air horn ban.

Dillon Mitchell sighting! I'm glad to see Montreal defends the run like Lawson defends a pass. Brady is going to have to carry this team.

Willie going to be lining up at receiver.

Add Sterns to the injury list. Mitchell might get a target if a couple more guys go down. 😂

FFS Demski is half our offense...

Lawson was so close to finally breaking up a pass but Holm was able to hold on.

Thought Mitchell was trying to take a penalty just to get on the stat sheet but it was Clercius.

Hogan probably sees his deep shots working in practice and thinks it's great play calling... doesn't realize our secondary is just really bad.

I want to hold out hope that he can learn and grow into the role but man the design of a lot of his plays just look doomed to fail even if they are performed perfectly. He's just so far from ready.

Dillon Mitchell be like

That's a bit revisionist. We didn't pro-actively bring Jones in to replace AB- Biggie was already on the 6 game list (injured May 15) and when we brought Jones in after Edmonton cut him (signed June 9). Jones also then sat on the PR for another month (added to the AR July 15). He didn't see a lot of meaningful action until Aug 18 against BC (he had 3 tackles in 3 games prior to that). Biggie got hurt during that game & again went on the 6 game list so Jones took over at that point (biggie only played 1 more game as a Bomber).

Well these are a bunch of s****y memories you guys are digging up on game day. I hope tonight does not resemble those dark times in any way shape or form! 😂 Talking about Tim Burke as HC instantly brings back memories of Jason Boltus - easily the worst performance I've seen from a "pro" QB live.

I think the injury may have happened a play or two earlier. That ferocious Jake Thomas pass rush that we all know & love (which Brown was lucky to avoid while scrambling for his life) must have caused some major knee damage that just wasn't immediately apparent. 😂

They should go for a prime Calvillo if they're time travelling to bring back an ex QB of theirs. The correct depth chart: GM-11-MONTREAL-DEPTH-CHART.pdf

Are there any this year that would crack the top 20? There were only 6 Canadian QB's playing D1 ball last year & we had guys like Kurtis Rourke who (probably thanks to his brother) we had been hearing about for a couple years before he was draft eligible. 2 of those 6 QB's (Callum Wither & Drew Viotto) are coming back up north to play this season but they haven't seen much playing time so no idea what they could turn out to be yet. Otherwise I don't recall hearing about anybody else coming up yet who might be able to make it at the pro level. This is also only the first edition of the rankings so we'll see what the winter & spring rankings show as they do change - maybe there's a couple QB's right now who are just off the rankings but improve their standing over the course of the season. The article even states that only 4 of 8 first round picks in the 2025 draft were on the 2024 fall rankings so somewhere along the line, those other 4 shot up (and/or other guys dropped off) the list.

3 years can go pretty fast without really seeing anything a ton from them if we go that route. Personally I'd like to get more than a season & a half from a top draft pick. Year 1 - ST only Year 2 - some rotation on D Year 3 - maybe starting? Year 4 - potentially gone. Not quite the same situation as Judge & Singleton. Judge only played 3 games (didn't record anything but ST tackles) in year 1 before getting hurt and missing the rest of the year. He rotated in quite a bit in year 2 before becoming a starter in year 3. Maybe it would have been sooner had he not been hurt but we'll never know. The 3 year scenario I mentioned above is exactly how it played out for Sask with Judge - 1 year as a starter and then he bolted as soon as he could. I hope that's not the case with our guys. Singleton did get real playing time in year one with Calgary but that was after spending 2015 on NFL PR's so it wasn't a straight transition from college to seeing the field as a pro.

I'm all for rotating Shay & Smith in but I also don't put too much stock in the "most pro ready" tag. We heard the exact same thing about Anthony Bennett.

The first rankings for next year's draft is out: Mesidor takes hold of top spot in fall edition of CFL Scouting Bureau - CFL.ca

You keep saying this but it's not really true. I went back and looked at the draft history since 2015 and we are above the league average when it comes to retaining our OL draft picks beyond their rookie deals. I only looked at the first 2 rounds so the numbers could be better or worse overall but I was looking at the top rated OL (excluding guys who fell due to NFL interest). It was surprising how few actually last past 3 years with their original team. BC - 6 OL drafted, only one stayed past their rookie deal (Godber). EDM - 5 OL drafted, only one stayed past their rookie deal (Beard). CAL - 3 OL drafted and 2 have stayed past their rookie deal (Sceviour & Bell). I was a bit surprised at how few high draft picks the Stamps have used on OL. SSK - 5 OL drafted, only one stayed past their rookie deal (Fry). WPG - 6 OL drafted, 3 stayed past their rookie deals (Chungh, Couture, Gray). Dobson, Desjarlais & Spooner are the ones who didn't play at least 4 seasons with us. HAM - 5 OL drafted & 2 have stayed beyond rookie deal (Revenberg & Woodmansey). TOR - 9 OL drafter with 5 staying past their rookie deal (McEwen, Sackey, Hunter, Richards, Nicastro). They also still have Doxtater that they drafted in 2021 but he bounced around down south so he's only in year 2 with them. OTT - 7 OL drafted with 3 staying past their rookie deal (Mateas, Lauzon-Seguin, Pelehos). MTL - 6 drafted, only 1 has stayed past their rookie deal (Lestage).